HSE's Safety Assessment Principles for radiation protection.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published its revised Safety Assessment Principles for Nuclear Facilities (SAPs) in December 2006. The SAPs are primarily intended for use by HSE's inspectors when judging the adequacy of safety cases for nuclear facilities. The revised SAPs refer in part to HSE's expectations relating to the technical discipline of radiation protection. The purpose of this paper is to describe for the benefit of a wider audience HSE's reasoning behind the final published SAPs and to set out the purpose of each specific radiation protection (RP) principle. The paper also discusses principles in other sections of the SAPs which are relevant to radiation protection. The paper notes that the SAPs should be viewed as a reflection of good practice in relation to nuclear facilities in the context of interpreting relevant parts of primary legislation such as the Nuclear Installations Act 1965.

A nuclear inspector's perspective on decommissioning at UK nuclear sites.

The legislative framework used to regulate decommissioning of nuclear facilities in the UK is described. Pre-licensing requirements are outlined and the operation of a nuclear site licence is described. Mention is made of safety assessment and the published principles which are NII's view of what constitutes good practice within the nuclear industry. HSE's approach to the regulation of nuclear decommissioning is described before discussing issues associated with optioneering, the timing of decommissioning, occupational doses and public doses. It is noted that the professional approach taken by the nuclear industry within the framework of the existing regulatory requirements has resulted in considerable reductions in occupational dose over the last few years. The de-licensing process is described in the context of terminating a licensee's period of responsibility for safety, and principles by which 'no danger' may be judged are described. Impending new legislation on environmental impact assessment in relation to decommissioning nuclear reactors is mentioned. It is concluded that a powerful and flexible method of regulatory control is in place with regard to nuclear decommissioning.